Update for the week Friday, July 5, through Thursday, July 11, 2013

THIS WEEKEND

NO VESPERS - there will not be a Vespers service at St. Mary this Saturday, July 7.

SUMMER HOURS - Starting this Sunday, July 7, we change to Summer Hours – Orthros: 8:15 am, and Liturgy: 9:30 am

NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS

BIBLE BOWL - Congratulations to our Bible Bowl Team from St. Mary’s for taking Third Place at the Parish Life Conference. Team participants were Thomas and Anthony Marge and Thais and Tycho Traumann-Davis.

FSJD Scholarships- Congratulations to Julia Shoop, Theo Smith and Tatiana Dalton on being awarded scholarships from the Fellowship of St. John the Divine at the 75th Parish Life Conference. We wish them well as they pursue their college education and future careers!

MEMORY ETERNAL - We regret to advise of the falling asleep in the Lord of Alice Yabroody of Milton on July 2, 2013. Alice was the Aunt of Mary Homsy and the Great Aunt of Madeline, Joanne and Ed Homsy. Private services will be held at Carroll-Thomas Funeral Home in Hyde Park on Tuesday July 9.

REMINDERS

BIBLE STUDY – The Bible Study at St. Mary, sponsored by the Fellowship of St. John the Divine, meets every other Thursday and is based on a lecture series originally broadcast on Ancient Faith Radio. Join us at 7:00 pm on Thursday, July 11, in the church library, for a discussion of Patristic Interpretation (Part 3) and the School of Alexandria (Part 1) . For more information contact Marianna Sayeg (mksayeg@gmail.com) or Fr. Antony (frawhj@gmail.com). New members are always welcome!

HELP GIVE SHOES TO CHILDREN IN NEED – FOCUS North America and the Antiochian Women of the Archdiocese are working with a major American shoe company to distribute thousands of pairs of shoes to economically disadvantaged children in Boston and other large cities throughout the US. Volunteers are needed to help sort, organize, and distribute these shoes and other items. Your efforts are essential to the program’s success! For more information or to volunteer, please contact our own Kailen Hodge, the FOCUS “Operation Lace Up” coordinator in our area, at 857-277-8323 or Kailen.Hodge@gmail.com . Information can also be found on the web at www.FOCUSna.org/LaceUp and in this week's Sunday bulletin.

GREETERS NEEDED – We’re still looking for Summer Greeters – please help out! Volunteers are needed for these Sundays: August 11, 18, 25, and September 1. As a Greeter, you will welcome people into the Church and help to direct visitors upstairs to the Liturgy, as well as keeping an eye on the Vestibule, Hallways and Entrance ways during Church. Arrive at Church 15 minutes before Liturgy. Greeting time ends when Communion starts. Please contact Buddy Mabardy at 781-729-6303 or e-mail: buddy@cjmabardy.com. Summer Hours are: Orthros: 8:15 am, and Liturgy: 9:30 am. Summer might be a GREAT time for you to start participating in this Ministry!

ARCHDIOCESE CONVENTION – The 2013 national convention of the Antiochian Archdiocese will be held July 21-28 in Houston TX, hosted by St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church. For information and registration see http://www.achouston2013.com.

OUR PRISON MINISTRY ON RADIO - Our own Deacon Jeff Smith can be heard in a recent interview with Ancient Faith Radio, talking about the blessings of ministering to prisoners in Concord, MA. Deacon Jeff gives listeners an inside look at prison ministry, recounting the nervousness of visiting a prison for the first time, the deep faith he's encountered among men in prison, and how his parish has even involved their Sunday school children in the ministry. Listen to Deacon Jeff's heartfelt interview here: http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/features/prison_ministry_awareness_sunday1

PAPPAS PATRISTICS INSTITUTE SUMMER PROGRAM - The Pappas Patristics Institute is pleased to announce the seventh annual week-long Summer Patristic Studies Program on the campus of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, MA on July 21-26, 2013. This week-long program is a unique opportunity to study and discuss classic texts of the early Church through small group-study and brief lectures from leading patristic scholars. The intended audience for the program includes theology and religious studies students at the masters and undergraduate levels, along with clergy, lay people, and undergraduates with an interest in learning more about the Church Fathers. Course offerings include "Exploring the Ancient Baptismal Liturgies" taught by our own Teva Regule, Doctoral Candidate at Boston College. For more information, or to register, please send an email to the Director of the Pappas Patristic Institute, Dr. Bruce Beck (pappaspatristic@comcast.net) at your earliest convenience. Complete information found here: http://www.hchc.edu/assets/files/patristics/2013_SumInst_AnnouncmentProgram_Short_130607.pdf

TANGLEWOOD OUTING – Join your music-loving friends from St. Mary’s as we carpool out to Tanglewood after Liturgy on Sunday, July 28. We’ll picnic on the lawn and listen to music by Dvorak (Carnival Overture and New World Symphony) and Prokofiev (Piano Concerto), with pianist Garrick Ohlsson. (For more information see http://www.bso.org/Performance/Detail/48875) The concert starts at 2:30; lawn tickets are $19.00 (pay at the door). Bring lawn chairs if you want them, and picnic food for yourself and to share. For more information and to let us know you're coming, especially if you'll need a ride, contact Melissa Nassiff at mnassiff@gmail.com.

NEW SKETE PILGRIMAGE - The Monastic Communities of New Skete Monastery in Cambridge, New York (www.newskete.org), invite you to their Annual Pilgrimage on Saturday, August 10, 2013, between 8:30am - 6:00pm. The day will include Church Services, Church Tours, a Photo Exhibit, and a Healing Service with Anointing as well as talks by the monastics on Monastic Life and Iconography and by Chapel Community members on their relationship with the monastery. This year’s guest speaker will be Art Historian, William Hood. His talk is entitled, "Praying with Two Eyes: Icons in the Christian Life." A event flier can be found here: http://www.newskete.org/pdfs/2013Pilgrimage%20SchedulePosterAccommodationsFINAL.pdf
   In the past, a crew from Boston has usually gone out to help with the logistics of the day. If you would like to do so (and also stay at the monastery), please contact Teva Regule at teva@mit.edu by July 28. (Caveat: Housing requests for the monks' guest rooms must be received before July 10. We have more time with other housing requests.)

PARISH SECRETARY – Marilyn Robbat will be out of the office during the summer months of June, July and August. Barbara Shoop will be filling in for her during this time. If you need any assistance, please do not hesitate to call Barbara in the office at 617-547-1234.

PRISON MINISTRY - Please donate unwanted past issues of Orthodox magazines such as The Word, OCMC or other periodicals to prison ministry to hand out to inmates. Please remove any personal mailing address for security purposes and give them to Mitrophan Chin.

STREAMING VIDEO – St. Mary’s Church services are broadcast live each week through an internet video stream. If you can't attend a service in person or want to share this ministry with a friend or loved one, the live stream can be viewed at www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/live during regularly scheduled service times (see the schedule of services below or online). If you have questions or comments about this ministry please contact us at live@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org.

VIDEO EDITING HELP WANTED – We are looking for volunteers to assist with some basic video editing to post the sermons and lectures from St. Mary's online. If you have experience with digital video editing, please let Jamil Samara or Erick Straghalis know you are interested in helping by emailing live@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org.

PHOTOGRAPHERS AND GRAPHIC DESIGNERS WANTED – Are you a photographer or a graphic designer and want to share your talents with St. Mary Church and her ministries? We are looking to get you involved to help photograph the divine services and events and to design promotional material for events and programs at our parish. Please contact Jamil Samara at webmaster@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org with any questions and to let him know that you are interested in getting more involved.

PARKING RESTRICTIONS – Please do not park in the Church parking lot if you need to leave quickly after church. Cars parked there will be staying until the end of coffee hour.

Additionally, do not park beyond the sign that prohibits parking at the corner of Inman Street and Bishop Allen Drive. (An orange cone will be placed in that No Parking area.) It is difficult for large vehicles to turn the corner if cars are parked there. Failure to heed this warning may result in the City preventing parishioners from parking on Inman Street. Your cooperation is appreciated.

And remember, there is no parishioner parking in the church parking lot Monday through Friday until after 6:00 pm.

THIS WEEK'S VOLUNTEERS

Greeter: Bob Kowalik

Coffee Hour: Lete Kidan and family

LITURGICAL SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEK

Saturday, July 6: No Vespers at St. Mary

Sunday, July 7: Summer hours begin: Orthros 8:15 AM, Divine Liturgy 9:30 am

SCRIPTURE READINGS for this Sunday:

Galatians 3:23-29; 4:1-5
Brethren, before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no better than a slave, though he is the owner of all the estate; but he is under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; when we were children, we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

The Gospel of Matthew 4:18-23
At that time, as Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left their boat and their father, and followed him. And he went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people.

LOOKING AHEAD

Sunday, July 14: Orthros 8:15 AM, Divine Liturgy 9:30 AM

Sunday, July 21: Orthros 8:15 AM, Divine Liturgy 9:30 AM

Saturday, July 27: No Vespers at St. Mary

Sunday, July 28: Orthros 8:15 AM, Divine Liturgy 9:30 AM